£2000 on a pc or a mac

[London Calling]

With 2K what's the best deal for me on a PC or a MAC.
Is it worth spending this type of cash?

I will in addition also be getting a hand held PC/ palm

Any advice.
LC

 

[northstandnorth]

for 2 grand i will get you both.you can even have them as notepads.make it 2490 and i will chuck in a palm pilot

 

[Cian]

PC. Avoid the major retail stores, go with Dell or similar - you actually have similar in the UK, we don't here

With a Mac, 2K will buy you either a G4 - a timebomb; or a G5 with no monitor and very low power. Or a laptop. Which will be a G4, and hence back on the timebomb problem (The G4 is end of line, 32 bit, outdated, and will probably be dropped and unsupported within 18 months)

 

[Cian]

Sorry, this is 2000 POUNDS. You'd get a decent enough G5. With no monitor.

However, software wise, a PC is still the best choice.

 

[London Calling]

Sorry, this is 2000 POUNDS. You'd get a decent enough G5. With no monitor.

However, software wise, a PC is still the best choice.

ANY TYPE OF PC YOU CAN SUGGEST I WOULDN'T MIND A DOG BOLLOX SCREEN

LC

 

[Bluejuice]

PC does mean you get more for your money and it is more future proof.

£2k is a lot of cash though.

Avoid Dell.

Your best bet is to find a local supplier that can custom build for you.

I got mine from www.teamclockwork.com

Very reasonably priced and they use good components which you can chose for yourself. The site gives you a good idea of what you might want and what likely costs will be.

 

[Cian]

ANY TYPE OF PC YOU CAN SUGGEST I WOULDN'T MIND A DOG BOLLOX SCREEN

LC

If I had 2 grand to chuck on a PC, I'd get this:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_xps?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Upgraded towards the top

Or if you don't need that much stuff, get this http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_8400?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

bring its specs up high and blow the rest on beer or something

Or get a laptop.

 

[Bluejuice]

Also, consider what you want from your palm.

I had a Palm m500 for years and have barely ever used it.

However, my new SPV C500 smartphone has had more use out of it in the few weeks I've owned it than the Palm ever did.

I would definitely give one a look if you're serious http://www.coolsmartphone.com/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=339

 

[Cian]

Avoid Dell.

Why? And don't give me the usual crap reasons about tech support - as its NOT crap if you actually know who to ask for.

If you want bad service - Sony. Followed by Apple, followed by HP. Worst three I've EVER dealt with. Sony's 'support' is a void - theres virtually no support available even in the first three months when you can actually still return the machine.

Sony, however make up for it slightly by building very nice, very well supported, almost indestructable machines. However, by pulling tricks like not giving you a CD drive, you're up shit creek in case of total OS death.

 

[Bluejuice]

Well I would personally avoid all the big mail order computer companies.

Dell are just the most obvious one to slate. I hear nothing but negative stories from disappointed customers, and I know quite a few.

It always pays to go for someone local and knowledgeable and thus if anything does go wrong you can actually go and see them face to face and kick off about your machine not working.

Dell machines frequently go wrong and need to be sent back to the manufacturers, which as you can imagine, is hardly a simple operation.

 

[London Calling]

for 2 grand i will get you both.you can even have them as notepads.make it 2490 and i will chuck in a palm pilot

?

LC

 

[Cian]

Dell have a higher amount of pissed off customers because they sell more kit than anyone else

Building your own machine is hard for a first timer, and you usually get royally screwed by 'independent system builders'

If you're asking for PC advice on NSC, you might not be up to choosing your own components.

I've had countless Dell machines, both personal and work, desktop and laptop. Only one has had a 'major' failure - it needed two CD-ROM replacements. Both under warranty, both had an engineer come out to fix them.

I've got a Dell 'server' (high powered workstation for its time RAM'med up) and three Dell laptops at the moment. All working perfectly.

Customer care is excellent and actually can scale to you technical knowledge - if you know bugger all, they can handle that, and if you know what you're talking about, they'll usually put you through to someone who can cope with that.

IBM make the best kit I've worked with though. Its just too damn expensive...

 

[Cian]

?

LC

He's saying that he can get you a low powered PC and Macintosh for under 2000. E.g. a Mac Mini and a cheapy 500 quid PC World system.

Or that he can get you them as laptops - 12" iBook and Dell Inspiron 1000, probably.

 

[Ccider]

Stuff the computers - get a woman! If you've already got one, get another. There's more to life than being a geek.

 

[clapham_gull]

I like Dells as well and they seem to do fantastic deals as well.

£2,000 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a PC. You could get a fantastic machine for half of that.

Anyway - the best advice (as I posted before)

ALWAYS spend your money on the best monitor you can buy and get a good quality keyboard and mouse. Then see what money you've got left for the system.

Look out for a ergonomic keyboard with slightly angled diamond shaped keys (not the split type). They make a massive difference to any damage you could do your hands.

Make sure the keyboard is wireless, and get a similiar wireless mouse - the optical type - no ball on the bottom.

And buy a good flat screen, 17inch TFT monitor.

These are the most IMPORTANT parts of your PC, I can't stress that enough !!!

(MYOB will agree I hope )

 

[Cian]

Stuff the computers - get a woman! If you've already got one, get another. There's more to life than being a geek.

Its entirely possible to be a geek and have a girlfriend. I've got one, for instance, and we're not talking a KtA style short term fling with a total munter.

 

[ShorehamGull]

Go with a PC, I have worked with both MAC's and PC's, and I found PC's have the advantage.

 

[Cian]

I like Dells as well and they seem to do fantastic deals as well.

£2,000 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a PC. You could get a fantastic machine for half of that.

Anyway - the best advice (as I posted before)

ALWAYS spend your money on the best monitor you can buy and get a good quality keyboard and mouse. Then see what money you've got left for the system.

Look out for a ergonomic keyboard with slightly angled diamond shaped keys (not the split type). They make a massive difference to any damage you could do your hands.

Make sure the keyboard is wireless, and get a similiar wireless mouse - the optical type - no ball on the bottom.

And buy a good flat screen, 17inch TFT monitor.

These are the most IMPORTANT parts of your PC, I can't stress that enough !!!

(MYOB will agree I hope )

I do. I don't bother with anoverly fancty ergonomic keyboard as my hands are already damaged enough, but my web coding box has an MS Natual on it, and my normal BeOS programming box has a very good quality Seimens on it. My laptops all have full size keys too - had a subnotebook with minisize and it was too sore to use for a long period of time.

A scroll mouse is a must if you don't want to be mousing around for ages. The mouse does the worst damage to you - its what causes bad carpal.

Wristrests usually do more harm than good

Optical mice = more accurate than cheapo balled mice, more movement, can be used without a mousepad

Mousepads for balled mice MUST be rough. That may defy what you see as being logical, considering all your crappy service station mats are shiny, but the ball needs to grip something.

And a TFT is must. I can't use a CRT for more than a few minutes at a time, even at 85Hz. Got a dual 15" TFT setup for my main machine

 

[jmc]

MYOB what do you do with all your old machines

 

[Cian]

MYOB what do you do with all your old machines

Keep them.

For as long as they still run, that is. If their Pentium or higher, they're all running BeOS, if they're anything else they're running NetBSD or Linux.

A few dead machines are kept as museum peices - one of the first batch of Pentium powered laptops, etc.